In recent years, various kinds of devices have been equipped with a hard disk. For example, portable music players and car navigation systems are equipped with a hard disk. Under the circumstances, a shingle write method is known as one of techniques for increasing the storage capacity for information with the size of a hard disk itself being miniaturized. In this method, data is successively written to a data track with part of the data track being overwritten by an adjacent data track from the inner circumferential side to the outer circumferential side on a recording medium so that the data tracks form a pattern like shingles. As a result, it is possible to realize a data track narrower than the recording width required to actually make a write by a magnetic head.
However, even in the case of hard disk drives adopting the shingle write method, it is often desirable that tracks be formed according to the shingle write method on part of a recording medium, whereas tracks are formed at intervals of normal track pitch on the rest of the recording medium. To be more specific, for example, sequential data is written to the tracks that are formed according to the shingle write method, (for example, video stream data), whereas data that should be randomly accessed is written to the tracks that are formed according to the normal track pitch.
Incidentally, for example, patent document 1 (Japanese Patent No. 36896338) discloses such an example in which a plurality of areas, each of which is constituted of tracks formed with the track pitch that differs from the other, are formed.
However, in the art described above, how to perform addressing for each of the plurality of areas, each of which is constituted of tracks formed with the track pitch that differs from the other, is not disclosed. In such a case, according to the conventional technique, addressing information must be set on a track format basis, and accordingly the position control of a read head or a write head must be performed on a track format basis. As a result, the configuration and control of an apparatus become complicated. In addition, the inspection and reference of the apparatus before shipment must also be performed on a track format basis, which makes the manufacturing process complicated.